Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
from ouko joachim omolo
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAKURU-KENYA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
NAKURU WORKSHOP TAKE-4
Rev Fr Richard Quinn, MM, Blessed John Paul II Evangelizing Parish Teams Spiritual Director is hosting more than fifty participants in a workshop which begins today through Sunday at Nakuru St Mary’s Catholic Pastoral Center.
The workshop whose aim is to promote and protect African family values will attract married couples, youth, University and College students with Kenyatta University representing the majority.
As Regional News already reported, this year the focus is going to be mainly on our youth and children-how parents, teachers, churches and mentors can assist them maintain and embrace these values-how they can desist from dangers that negate these values among others.
In Europe, US and developed countries the secularism has taken over the family values-that is why they prefer to marry same sex-youths in these countries are confused, they do not know who turn to for help and guidance.
In Spain some Roman Catholic priests are using the youth to protest against Pope Benedict XVI visit-a chemistry student working as a volunteer for the pope’s visit to Madrid was arrested on suspicion of planning a gas attack targeting protesters opposed to the pontiff’s stay.
Pope Benedict XVI is due to arrive today for a nearly four-day visit to celebrate World Youth Day. Thousands of protesters railing against his visit marched Wednesday through central Madrid to the central Sol plaza, where they have held months of demonstrations against the government’s anti-austerity policies.
The workshop is coming at the time fear is spreading in Tanzania that some six religious leaders are recruiting youth in drug trafficking deals. According to Inspector General of Police Mr Mwema, legal action awaits the six religious leaders who confessed to being involved in drug trafficking. The clerics made the confession before the Ethics Committee for Religious Leaders and Community Privileges last month.
Mr Mwema according to media report made the remarks in answer to a question by a journalist who sought to know the position of the police on the clerics who have admitted being involved in the trade in illicit drugs and are involving youth. The clerics report says made the surprise confession after they were interrogated by the police, pleading for protection for fear of losing face before their followers.
Existing laws and systems provide for stringent punitive measures against all those involved in illicit drugs, regardless of whether the suspects are religious leaders, journalists, doctors, political party leaders or police officers.
Roman Catholic Cardinal Polycarp Pengo on Sunday demanded that the government name religious leaders it said were involved in drug trafficking, referring to President Jakaya Kikwete’s allegations that some religious leaders were involved in the illicit trade.
President Kikwete who was speaking at the ordination of Mbinga Catholic Bishop John Ndimbo, said some clerics had been involving young Tanzanians in the business, by helping them to acquire passports to facilitate their travels during drugs peddling.
Although this is the third time the cardinal has publicly challenged the authorities to reveal the names of the drug culprits, in 2009 the Vatican removed from office Bishop Jakob Koda of Same Catholic Diocese in Kilimanjaro region for alleged violation of church moral teachings.
While the Vatican did not elaborate on what type of violation of moral teachings of the church, local press reported quoted bishop Koda to have accused another unnamed bishop of engineering his ouster, alleging that he was a Freemason member whose movement is identified with drugs and were involving young people in the deal.
The Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to Tanzania Archbishop Joseph Chennoth was quoted to have told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam that Bishop Koda has now been ‘advised to take time for rest, reflection and personal study.
The committee’s Chairman, Rev William Mwamalanga of the Pentecostal Church of Tanzania was reported to have said that the full list includes 18 prominent business people and politicians “but all names will be submitted to the anti-narcotics unit”.
It is easier for young people to peddle on the drugs given that Tanzania is still being used as a transit route for illicit drugs despite the ongoing international campaign to stop the spread of narcotics.
A Kenyan woman has been arrested in Dar es Salaam just few months ago for possession of three kilogrammes of heroin worth millions of shillings. Rebecca Wanjiku, 48 was apprehended at the Ubungo upcountry bus terminal in the city allegedly in the process of trying to transport the narcotics to South Africa.
Last year controversial Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal sneaked to Kenya via Tanzania border. It demonstrates how easy it is to pass Tanzanian border without being noticed. Kenyan officials said al-Faisal travelled from Nigeria through Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique and Tanzania by road before entering Kenya.
According to a report made available to The Express Newspaper by the International Narcotics Board, illicit drugs for abuse have been passing through Tanzanian entry points unabated. The report said that Tanzania was a good centre for drugs in transit to other African and world countries where consumption is much higher. It said other African nations notable for drug trafficking are Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa.
While delivering homily during the AMECEA meeting in Nairobi, Kenya last month, Cardinal Pengo admitted that devil worship had taken root in the Catholic Church, wondering why this could take place in the holy church of Christ.
When devil worshipping was very rampant in Kenya in the 1990s, it was reported that young people were involved for sexual orgies. The report said they drunk human blood, used sex as spiritual climax. Young people were asked to strip naked at night in dark rooms so that adults could have sexual orgies with them.
The report further alleged that they were introducing the worship in boarding schools where students were promised to be assisted financially if they accepted to join the practice and introduce it to other students.
Daily Nation reported on June 6, 2010 that when Philip Onyancha was a Form One student at Kenyatta Mahiga High School in Nyeri, then President Daniel arap Moi appointed a commission to inquire into devil worship in Kenya.
At that time, the country was throbbing with claims of widespread devil worship with some reports linking the practice to people in high places. The commission headed by Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima, was appointed in March 1995 when Onyancha was in his first term in secondary school. Onyancha claimed to have killed 17 people.
The team had been established to investigate whether there were devil worship cults in Kenya and whether they were linked to drug abuse and other anti-social activities. The report was not made public until 1999 when the Nation published parts of the findings that had been selectively released to religious organizations.
“Devil worshippers are usually wealthy and prominent people who drive expensive cars. Some of them own large commercial enterprises,” the report claimed in parts.
The report said devil worshippers use their wealth to attract new members and gave graphic details of initiation rites including eating human flesh and licking blood.
In the case of Onyancha, his former teachers at Kenyatta Mahiga said he was a bright student for the first two years, but his performance declined in the final two. It is not clear if the school made any effort to investigate the cause. The report said some satanists had even infiltrated the Kenya Students Christian Fellowship to recruit members.
Some of the devil worship rituals in the commission’s report include: human sacrifice, drinking human blood, eating human flesh, nudity of the participants in the ritual, incantations in unintelligible language, sexual abuse, especially of children; black magic, narcotic drugs and presence of snakes. Body parts such as tongues, eyes and limbs are also used in the rituals.
In Tanzania 25 people with albinism have been reportedly murdered since March. Albinos are targeted for body parts that are used in witchcraft. The latest victim was a seven-month-old baby. He was mutilated on the orders of a witchdoctor peddling the belief that potions made from an albino’s legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich. There are estimated to be about 17,000 albino people living in Tanzania. They lack pigment in their skin and appear pale.
It is very unfortunate that all the abuses are targeted on youth and children. Today for example, the sex abuse cases which were initially a problem only for national bishops’ conferences, particularly in the United States, Ireland and Germany, have merged into a crisis for the entire Catholic Church, Africa included.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org